North Dakota Legislature Drops LGBT Housing Protections Bill

Over at LGBTQ Nation, North Dakota state representative Joshua Boschee reports on the North Dakota legislature’s failure to pass a basic anti discrimination bill to protect LGBT homeowners:

Last week the North Dakota Senate defeated SB 2252 with a 21-26 bipartisan vote, which would have amended the North Dakota Human Rights Act and the North Dakota Fair Housing Act to protect LGBT North Dakotans and their family from discrimination in housing, employment, public accommodations and public services. As a lifelong North Dakotan, I am appalled that our state, a state that prides itself on valuing others and taking care of our neighbors, continues to support rhetoric that is pro-discrimination.

But Boschee cautions LGBT North Dakotans to keep the faith:

Through all of this, I encourage you not to give up on North Dakota quite yet. There is a silver lining. Immediately following the defeat of SB 2252, city leaders from three of the state’s largest cities contacted me to gather information to pass fully inclusive local ordinances. Community leaders are preparing to work with the state’s most populous county to pass a similar ordinance. Lesbian, gay, bisexual and straight state employees in the three of the largest agencies are currently protected in employment, and we are preparing to move forward to ensure protections to all state employees.

The very fact that this is even being discussed in a state like North Dakota is a step forward.